Aussies fight for secret network
Half a dozen Australians are known to be operating with the highly secretive terrorist group Khorasan, which has been planning major attacks on the West, including advanced plans to blow up commercial jets.
The West Australian can reveal that British intelligence agency MI5 identified Australian citizens among key figures in the Syrian-based offshoot of al-Qaida several months ago.
Australian, British and US authorities decided to keep their knowledge of Khorasan under wraps to maximise the success of a surprise strike on the cell.
The strike began yesterday with US-led missile and jet fighter attacks on Khorasan targets inside Syria.
Revelations about an Australian link to Khorasan came as politicians and community leaders called for calm after the fatal shooting of a teenage terror suspect at a Melbourne police station on Tuesday night.
| AUSSIE TERRORISTS | MUSLIMS HARASSED | UNFLINCHING: ABBOTT | VIDEO: OBAMA
Numan Haider, 18, stabbed two police officers after being called to the station to discuss claims he had been seen waving an Islamic State flag at a shopping centre.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Haider had launched a "fierce attack" on the officers.
"This indicates there are people in our community capable of very extreme acts," he said.
Security will be increased at all major Victorian events, including the AFL grand final on Saturday. Police said undercover officers would attend the game.
The West Australian understands the bombing against Khorasan in Syria had some success.
The group's 33-year-old Kuwaiti-born leader Muhsin al-Fadhli, a former al-Qaida kingpin, is thought to have been killed in the air strike, which was supported by Sunni Arab nations Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.
Unlike Islamic State, which boasts of its atrocities on social media and is motivated by the creation of an Islamic caliphate, Khorasan has kept in the shadows and wants to conduct terror attacks against the West.
Khorasan, formed last year by al-Qaida veterans from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, has been described by the US director of national intelligence James Clapper as more of a direct threat to the homeland than IS.
It is believed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was first briefed about Khorasan three months ago. Australia has significantly increased security at its major airports since.
Khorasan is believed to have been training foreign fighters with Western passports in sophisticated bombmaking techniques that avoid detection by airline security. "We cannot assume that IS is the only extremist organisation recruiting from Australia," Ms Bishop said.
She told a global terrorism forum yesterday that Australia would bring together law enforcement and airline industry experts to devise ways of strengthening travel systems and intelligence sharing to stop foreign fighters boarding flights.
Authorities want greater access to airlines records to analyse travel patterns of passengers going to terror hotspots.
A United Nations Security Council meeting chaired by US President Barack Obama is today expected to result in nations being required to prevent and prosecute people who travel overseas to become foreign fighters.
